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The Refsneshagen Homestead
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A summer day in 1913 Olai runs along the road to Refsneshagen. In his pocket he has the letter to Uncle John in America. He hurries a little, as his mother has told him to come straight back home, since dinner is almost ready. He knows the road well; he has walked it with his...
The Iron Age Burial Ground
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Sometime during the Early Iron Age, more than 1500 years ago, a woman was buried in a mound on a Refsnes hillside. Some of her belongings were placed in the grave with her, and on top of the tomb, friends and family assembled a cairn of rocks as a monument to her. Over time, the...
A Place of Execution
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Once upon a time there were two married men from Stjørna. They both took a fancy to Barbara, the wife of the farmer at Husby. One winter Barbara and the two lovers came up with a plan to get rid of her husband. They drilled a hole in the wall right by the bed of...
The Salmon Vorp
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There once stood a simple log cabin on the Refsnes oceanfront. In the cabin, men sat patiently waiting for the salmon to enter the bay. This was the vorp, an ancient fishing method which is also called ståarnot or sitjenot, meaning sitting net, because you sit, waiting and scouting for salmon. In the sea below...
The Ice Pond
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At the start of the 20th century, landowner Anders Refsnes (1879-1939) dammed up the pond on his farm in order to produce ice. The ice from the new ice pond was needed to keep the salmon caught in the seine nets at the farm cold and fresh during the voyage to Trondheim. Today the ice...
The Square Burial Mound
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Out here on the Refsnes cape there is a burial ground from the Iron Age. The ground consists of several circular mounds plus one that stands out; a very rare grave, quite unique in Norwegian context. The grave is a square mound, large and rectangular, almost like a land lot, constructed as a barrow of...
The Large Stone Age Settlement at Refsnes
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An archaeologist walks along the trails at Refsnes. She’s looking for traces of Stone Age people. The search begins near the summit. In the early Stone Age, over nine thousand years ago, the land was depressed by the great ice sheet, and the sea level was much higher. People set up camp and settled at...
The Three Dwellings at Refsnes
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Between five and six thousand years ago, there were three houses at Refsnes. Maybe not houses in the modern sense. But nevertheless solid structures, which provided shelter to the people who lived here at the time. From the Early Stone Age, over ten thousand years ago, people used a movable form of shelter, a tent...